First story: moving to Munich
Ivan Demchenko had always been interested in the experience of living in another country. For a long time, he wanted to move to Australia, but due to a complicated set of documents, he had to abandon that idea. Friends from Munich told him about the advantages of life in Germany, so Ivan and his wife decided to try this option.
First, the programmer posted his resume on the job search site Monster. "The site did its job. A recruiter called me and offered to go through an interview," says Ivan. It consisted of two stages – technical and general. According to the specialist, in Ukraine people prepare for a technical interview as if for an exam, but in Germany "everything is calmer and more pleasant." As a result, Ivan received a contract at a large Munich startup that develops a CRM system for pharmaceutical companies.
Then the process of preparing documents began: the Ukrainian found the list of documents on the embassy's website. The most difficult part, according to Ivan, was the verification of his higher education diploma. However, having an employment contract in hand speeded up the process: within two weeks, he received a reply that his bachelor's degree was equivalent to a German one. He didn't need to present his master's degree.
"And then – a suitcase, a bicycle, a one-way ticket, parents, white handkerchiefs, and Memmingen Airport, from where I got to Munich," recalls Ivan. The main difficulties at first were linguistic, as all bureaucratic matters are handled in German. "On my very first working day, I was four hours late; I thought it would be my last working day. All because of the queue at the Foreigners' Office in Munich," the programmer says. There, he submitted documents for the Blue Card and residence registration. In the end, no one paid attention to the lateness; they were even surprised that he managed to get everything done in one day. At the office, Ivan was awaited by colleagues: a Pole and a Hungarian.
Finding housing turned out to be another problem. According to the programmer, after the CIS countries, where an apartment can be rented literally in a day and quality directly depends on cost, the housing situation in Munich can be shocking. "A guy from Ukraine without a credit history looks pale against the background of 20-30 other applicants. We sent out many letters every day and went to all viewings. We didn't feel like smiling at the brokers anymore. But fortunately, an apartment was eventually found," he recalls.
Second story: the sky over Berlin
Unlike Ivan Demchenko, programmer Alexander Beletsky never thought about leaving Ukraine. Since the early 2000s, the outsourcing market had been actively developing here, IT companies were growing in number, and their employees' salaries were rising. "The well-known events on the Maidan, in Crimea, and in eastern Ukraine led to a sharp drop in capital inflows into the country; many companies took their employees abroad, others took up arms and went to the front. I couldn't find investment for the business I was developing, the product wasn't profitable, and then the team fell apart," recalls Alexander.
The move was a difficult decision: "First of all, it meant leaving my parents." On the other hand, according to the developer, he had a chance to be in the startup capital of Europe, if not to develop his own business, then at least to see how others do it.
Alexander knew that Germany offers good conditions for IT specialists: under the Blue Card program, both spouses can live and work here. Since he targeted the startup market, he spent most of his time on the Berlin Startup Jobs website. "I chose companies that interested me, added them to a list, and then sent my resume, cover letter, and links to my social profiles on Twitter and GitHub. Out of 30 companies, about seven replied," says Alexander. Negotiations often took place with the founders, but he couldn't find common ground.
The future employer – a company that automates food delivery logistics – contacted Alexander through his profile on Stack Overflow. "We talked several times, agreed on the contract details and salary. Since they needed a developer urgently, they offered me to start working remotely," he says. Thus, the job search took only 14 days.
Then he had to prepare many documents, translate them, and get them apostilled, recalls Alexander. But aside from the time spent in queues, the visa process itself was quite simple and took only four days.
In Berlin, the first thing to do is register. Without that, you cannot open a bank account, and thus cannot obtain a certificate from the credit protection agency Schufa (a document often requested by a broker or landlord). "The earliest available appointment was only a few weeks away, so I recommend scheduling an appointment before you arrive. The same goes for the Blue Card: be prepared that you won't be able to get an appointment earlier than two months, and then you'll have to wait another month or month and a half for the card itself," says Alexander.
Remember about the language of communication
Despite the fact that the main language of communication in the IT environment is English, both programmers admit that knowledge of German will not be superfluous. "In a company as small as mine, meetings and all internal correspondence, if not directly related to IT, are conducted in German. At the bar, colleagues will also speak German, 'forgetting' that someone doesn't know it," says Alexander.
Is he comfortable in Germany? "In Berlin, I stopped dividing people by countries and nationalities," he admits. "Of course, if we take an average German and an average Ukrainian, they will be different people. But we watch the same films, read the same books, and listen to the same music. There is no gap between a programmer from Germany and one from Ukraine, so integrating here is quite easy."
"In an international team, it's curious to observe different approaches to solving the same problems, to learn colleagues' views on current events in Ukraine. Otherwise, work is work. My contract is standard," says Ivan. Compared to his income in Ukraine, the programmer admits, he lost a little, but it didn't bother him much. "Also, my last place in Ukraine was memorable for its warmth, relaxation, and great parties every six months. I haven't encountered that here," he says with slight regret.